Yes, We Can!: Empowering Black Students and Families for Educational Success
- James Jerome Hankin
- Aug 4
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 6
Aug 4, 2025
Education
EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK: “WHAT WE BLACKS NEED TO DO PART-2”
Let’s return to pre-school, kindergarten, middle school, high school, trade school,
and college with a “Yes, I can!” attitude!
PARENTS: Provide your children with the basic tools they need, and only buy the clothes you can afford. Place this positive statements on your refrigerator as a daily reminder. "Remember, most students at your school may outshine you in dressing, sports, rapping, writing, dancing, speaking, or performing in the arts and vocational classes—but no one can outstudy or outread you!" Encourage your children to create a rap about this message. When they ask you to stretch your budget for things you can’t afford, simply point to the refrigerator. At dinner, have each student share one new thing they learned at school that day.
STUDENTS: Read, read, read! Complete all your homework, be a great student-teacher, and help tutor your siblings. Those of you heading to higher education, remember to follow the rules your parents lovingly instilled in you for 18 years. Don’t be like my hard-headed cousin who said, “Goodbye, God, I’m going to college to be a player!” He didn’t study, take notes, or attend class regularly. Being the life of the party led him to flunk out after just one semester, returning home in disgrace and $12,000 in debt.
Let’s be inspired by the wisdom of our outstanding educators!
MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE: “Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered, but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it.” https://www.cookman.edu/history/our-founder.html
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: “We all should rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.” https://www.tuskegee.edu/discover-tu/tu-presidents/booker-t-washington
MARVA COLLINS: “When someone is taught the joy of learning, it becomes a lifelong process that never stops—a process that creates a logical individual.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/george-washington-carver
Growing up in a religious household with my AME-Zion mother, Faldenia, and Catholic father, Edward, I learned never to give up. My “player” cousin eventually transformed his life. He worked as a busboy and dishwasher at night and attended community college during the day to reach his goals. My other two cousins, like the prodigal son and the one Gladys Knight sang about in “Midnight Train to Georgia,” also found their way home. Smile!
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Watch the Commodores sing
“Jesus Is Love” on YouTube!
Remember, with determination and a “Yes, We Can” spirit, there is nothing we cannot achieve!
About — James Jerome Hankins, author, journalist, Realtor®, Army veteran, coach, caregiver, union member, former local NAACP president, 34-year retired “Shop” Teacher, and 1971 graduate of North Carolina A&T State University.
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